Was on a flight on US Airways from SJU to CLT. While making the approach to CLT, the aircraft made an abrupt maneuver, all of a sudden ascending to a higher altitude and quick turn. We circled around again and landed safely. On the ground, I asked one of the FAs what happened, and she said they were trying to avoid another aircraft.

Is there any public record of how close that near miss was? I was on Flight 1039.

IMHO, Avoiding another aircraft does not itself constitute a "near miss", and the terminology from a flight attendant may not always be the proper term.

One very safe and normal operation could be if your aircraft was established on final and traffic to the parallel runway started to slightly get off center line of their runway toward yours, a final monitor controller who is monitoring the final approach course determined your flight needed to climb and be vectored around for another approach in order to maintain the required separation between the two runways.

Another reason could be that your aircraft was overtaking the preceding and longitudinal separation would be lost if you continued the approach so your crew was instructed to climb and turn for re-sequencing.

There are a number of possible scenarios available.

Any views shared are strictly my own and do not a represent those of any former employer.

More than likely an action taken by ATC to avoid a loss of separation. This is a far cry from two airplanes almost colliding. More often than not, breaking off an approach for traffic is done to ensure separation long before the two aircraft get too close to each other.

I routinely initiate vectors for aircraft on converging courses when they are still over fifty miles from each other. Some would define this as a near miss, placing hundreds of lives in jeopardy. I call it positive separation, and all in a day's work. I saw a potential problem, and I fixed it before it became a problem. It's what we do.

PC

edit: Was it the Sunday flight, January 6th? According to flightaware.com, the flight was on approach to runway 23 before breaking off and landing on 18R. I believe that it is common to have aircraft depart runway 18L staggered between arrivals on 23. My guess would be that a departure was a little late in clearing the runway intersection, and the tower sent you around as a precaution.

“Here's a phrase that apparently the airlines simply made up: near miss. They say that if 2 planes almost collide, it's a near miss. Bullshit, my friend. It's a near hit! A collision is a near miss.
[WHAM! CRUNCH!]
"Look, they nearly missed!"
"Yes, but not quite.”

Quoting Dreadnought (Reply 5):“Here's a phrase that apparently the airlines simply made up: near miss. They say that if 2 planes almost collide, it's a near miss. Bullshit, my friend. It's a near hit! A collision is a near miss.
[WHAM! CRUNCH!]
"Look, they nearly missed!"
"Yes, but not quite.”

- George Carlin

I was thinking about that airline sketch the whole time I was reading down this thread, then I see someone has posted it!